Making a paddock/arena base Part 1

I've had this idea of making a paddock/arena base to use for my photoshow photos and performance entries for quite a long time. A few months ago I finally got the last supplies and finally started to make it! :)

The things I used can be seen in the picture and listed below:

Cork pinboard 40cm x 60cm
Glue, I used a wood glue
Sand (I bought three bags) unfortunately I don't remember how much were in them
2 brushes (one for painting and one for the glue)
X-acto knife
White acrylic (or hobby) paint
Sticks to make a fence (the ones I used where one that where 1 cm x 1 cm x 100 cm and two that where 1 cm x 0,3 mm x 100 cm)
Something to measure with

Not pictured is sandpaper and cuttingboard (and I also had to get a bigger knife since I had no saw and the x-acto knife didn't quite cut it).

First of all I brought out a horse I had handy (which happened to be a big one, which was good so I could see that it would work for large models too), for me that was my unpainted Eberl Elsa. I just wanted to see that she would fit (since I've started to gather a nice little collection of large Eberl models *cough* Lohengrin *cough*). I decided that it would work.

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I then took my "gluebrush" and started brushing on glue on a square. I poured the sand over it but made sure I could still see the glue a little bit.

I then did another square of glue right next to the first. And sprinkled sand on top. I did that one more time and then I had covered half of the corkboard. The reason I brush the glue on in squares is so that it won't have time to dry out to much before I am done so I can sprinkle on the sand.

I followed the same steps for the other half of the corkboard and left it to dry with the sand still on top. When the glue was dry I put a big news paper under the short end of the board, tilted it and tapped of the excess sand. I realized that one layer wasn't giving me the coverage I wanted so I did another layer using the same technique on top of the first layer of sand.

In the picture below I've just finished the second layer and I'm waiting for it to dry so I can tap of the excess again. If I don't like the coverage I'll just have to make a third layer.

When everything was drying I started to measure the poles for the fence. I can't remember the measurements at the moment (and unfortunately I'm at uni so I can't look it up at the moment) but I cut 3 poles from the 1 cm x 1 cm x 100 cm stick in suitable length.

They were a little uneven in the ends as seen below since I snapped the last middle piece that I couldn't cut with my knife. It was an easy fix with some sandpaper.

That's all for now as I haven't come any further at the moment!

Progress!

I made some progress Wednesday.

The Andalusian has no mane, tail or forelock at the moment. I also hollowed out his ears, nostrils and raised hooves a tiny bit.

Time spent on Andalusian custom this far: 40 minutes

The Andalusian will have his genitalia removed and new sculpted as I can't stand the blobs he have at the moment. His profile might also need some straightening other than the regular filling in where needed and prepping. After that I'll start on his mane and tail.

He can't stand on his own without the tail (hence the apoxie jar) but he'll have a base when he is done.

The Paso mare has had her mane, tail and forelock removed and I hollowed out her ears, nostrils and raised hooves a tiny bit as well.

Time spent on Paso custom this far: 35 minutes

The Paso mare might have her ears removed as they are uneven! And her left eye is bothering me so I might remove that too. I also plan to do some work on her neck as it seems too big and bulky for my taste. I'm not sure about tucking her head so I'll try to work on her neck first and see how I like that. She will have genitalia sculpted and of course some regular filling and prepping before I'll start on her mane and tail.

The other horses are still in the same state as in the last post as I didn't have time to work on them Wednesday. Hopefully I'll have time to work on them during the weekend!

Not going too well...

As the title says it's not going too well with my five customizing victims. I had great plans to start with my models and brought all the things I needed with me to my boyfriend.

At least that is what I thought... When we sat in his car on our way from the train station where he had picked me up, I realized that I had forgotten the key item. My electrical file. So no customization was done during my days off as I didn't have the tools to get rid of the mane and tails. But I still had a wonderful, relaxing time :)

Anyway today I relocated the stuff on my desk cleaned my desk and started preparing for doing some work tomorrow.

If you couldn't guess it from the drawing in my last post these are the five models I will work on:

The first three came to me already primed and the Andalusian was painted by me before but stripped and re-primed.

The Warmblood will have a more simple customization, he will have his mane and tail removed and probably braids sculpted and a new swishing tail (on the show side) or a "regular" flowing tail.

In my last post I asked for suggestions and I got some great ones from Beth at Chestnut Heartbeats. Among her suggestions she suggested making the Andalusian into a portrait of a famous dressage horse. I did have the idea of turning him into a dressage warmblood but when I read the suggestion I realized that this guy needs to be turned into a mini portrait of my all-time favourite famous dressage horse Bjorsells Briar who were ridden by the Swedish rider Jan Brink. I actually had the privilege to meet the real Briar a few times, both out on competition and at his home-stable. So I'm quite excited by this guy! He will get a new mane and tail and he'll probably need a base to stand as well.

Next horse, the Breyer Para-dressage mold. I have seen a few customs on this mold to beautiful Fjords and I wanted to try my hands at making one for myself. I just had to email the owner (and creator) of the ones I had seen to ask her if I could "borrow" her idea as it felt wrong to me to just "copy" the idea. She said it was absolutely no problem and I'm glad as I really think this mold makes a great Fjord! Unfortunately mine has some work to be done before it'll be a good Fjord.

  

First of all she has uneven eyes so I will resculpt her right eye as I like the look and placing of her left eye much better.

And secondly her ears. I find them quite ugly so they will need to be resculpted and of course she'll need a new mane, tail and some new "private parts" (not sure if I'll turn her into a him or let her stay a girl).

This girl is still quite undecided. She will have her mane and tail removed. I'm thinking of giving her a slight headtuck and do something about that face and neck that doesn't look quite right to me.

This guy was also a bit uncertain. I thought about turning him into Yarraman from the Silver Brumby series but once again Beth at Chestnut Heartbeats had a suggestion of turning him into a Hackney. I am not familiar with the breed but I thought it was a fun idea so I read up on the breed standard and with some work he might be a decent hackney. To begin with I chop of the mane and tail and then we'll see where we're going.

His face is also a bit wonky so it needs some work too.

I'll also try to keep record on the time it takes me to finish the individual horses as I think that it would be fun to know how much time I put into each horse from start to finish.

Customizing Ideas

Just a quick post today :)

The Christmas holiday didn't turn out as I had planed and I had no time to spend on models at all. I'm a bit disappointed by that but I've got a second chance :)

Today I did my final presentation for this course and revised my paper. That means that I only have 4 presentations to listen to tomorrow (that will take approximately 2 hours) and then I'm off for the rest of the week since our next course doesn't start till Monday! :) This means I am leaving uni for some time off, taking the train to my boyfriend tomorrow!

And now to the modelhorse-y stuff. Since my boyfriend is working during the days I will have some alone time, so I'll bring some models and apoxie :)

I brought 5 models to uni that I intend to give some light customization so I'll bring them with me. I wasn't sure what I want with them so I traced their outlines on a paper and then added some quick suggestions for manes and tails:

I still haven't decided what I will do with them yet but the above suggestions are a start. I'm sure you'll recognize the 5 stablemates I plan to use from the above drawing :) Any suggestions on manes/tails or colours for them is appreciated :)

Treating myself

I've had a tough semester in school and when I managed to earn myself some extra money I decided to treat myself to a new model since I haven't bought a model all year. The choice was quite easy when it came to what model it would be so I pre-ordered him and then I just had to wait. A few weeks ago he arrived but unfortunately he arrived at my home, not my room where I study so I had to wait until Christmas break to be able to open him!

And a few days before Christmas I finally got home so that I could open the box! I was a bit scared since my father told me that the mailman had just shoved the package down our mailbox and that was quite evident by the look of the outer box. Fortunately the Breyer box was only dented in one corner and the horse was not injured at all.

This model is gorgeous! I absolutely LOVE him and I NEED more horses on this mold! I can totally see myself having pretty much one in every colour possible! I want more original finish ones and some customs too!

I mean look at him. Even though my photos are bad...

...he looks beautiful... 

                      

...from pretty much...

                      

...every angle!

I wasn't sure what to name him at first. I've been watching a lot of Supernatural lately so I thought about naming him Winchester after the two brothers but it didn't suit him just right so I had to rethink and look through a list of nice names I have gathered over the years and there I found one I liked. Fandango. The more I thought about it the more I realized that it was the perfect name for him!

I can't wait to get my hands on more Valegros! :)

Plans for 2016

A leopard in the Kruger National Park. Picture taken by me in 2015.

A new year and new plans! Or more like similar plans as I usually have :)

My hobby goals/plans for 2016 are:

- Attend at least one liveshow.
I really want to get my hands on some more qualification cards to earn my horses some starshower certificates. And I love liveshows and meeting all the hobby people!

- Paint some of my bodybox models.
I have a lot of models in my bodybox and I would like to get some of them painted, mostly to try and get better at painting. Eventhough I am very happy with how my latest repaints turned out, I can still improve a lot!

- Try my hands at some more extensive resculpting.
This far I've only tried resculpting manes and tails but this year I would love to try to move some legs or resculpt some necks.

- Paint my Kandinsky Dino as a portrait of Hjalmar.
He is started, I just need to find the time to finish him.

- Buy at least one model on my wish list.
Although my wish list is always expanding it doesn't hurt to try and make it smaller ;)

- Take photos for my website.
Order a background for my arena base and start taking pictures!

- Keep blogging.
For 2016 I would like to reach 20 000 views on this blog that means that I need 15 views per day. I probably need to write more interesting posts :P My Dressage post and my How to tie a rope halter post are the most popular posts on my blog so I might try to write more posts like that. If there are any posts you like on my blog or something you would like to see more of I would gladly hear your suggestions.

I wish you all a really good 2016!

Since You Don't Love Me

2015 Review

An elephant in the Kruger National Park. Picture taken by me in 2015.

2015 has come to an end. I'm not sure how that happened, the last 6 months have been flying by faster than I realized. Personally it's been a good year for me. I have done two work practice periods for my education, been to South Africa working with animals, working ALOT, spent time with my boyfriend, friends and family and started my last year of uni! By now I have about 6 months left before I am done!

When it comes to model horses this is what it looks like:

As seen in this post I had set the following goals to achieve in 2015:

- Attend at least one liveshow.
- Get my RC Mini Haggis painted.
- Paint some of my poor naked horses.
- Buy at least one model on my wish list
- Take photos for my website
- Finish pedigrees for at least 3 breeds
- Keep blogging

Belize

I must say that I'm happy with how I've done this year!

- I did attend, not one, but two liveshows in 2015! So I would say I managed to achieve that goal to 200% ;) And I'm also very proud of how well my horses did in these shows!
- My mini Haggis finally got his clothes! And by none other than myself! I'm happy with how he turned out!
- I did get some of my poor naked horses painted but I also got more models for my bodybox so I'm not quite sure what to say about this goal since my plan was to have less horses in my bodybox (I now think I have more ;))
- I actually only bought one model the entire year! Yes, hobby funds have been THAT scarce! I haven't had the time introduce him yet but he will be introduced soon :) I did win a few models on the two liveshows I went to. Most of them are destined for the bodybox and a new life, in time.
- I didn't take a single picture for my website but I started on a base so that I can take better pictures.
- When it comes to the pedigrees I've decided to put it on ice since I'm not sure I want to continue with pedigree assigning for all my models. I might continue for some of my favourite breeds though.
- When it comes to blogging I have pretty much kept my goal of two posts a month. A few more some months and some less some months but all in all I think I managed :)

Dixi

2015 has been a good year, especially for me personally. I'm hoping 2016 will be equally good on the personal plan and maybe bring me some more hobby time/funds :)

R. Peppermint